Friday, July 31, 2015

The
world’s largest chain of convenience stores appears to be getting ready to say
good-by to Roller Grill.As regular
readers of this blog have often lets us know it is time that 7-Eleven evolve
past the roller grill and become more like Sheetz and Wawa. We have been saying
By-By Roller Grill for a long time as
well.

Recently
The Oklahoman reported that an
independent Oklahoma family-owned 7-Eleven Stores “unveiled the first of its
new formats, which feature a kitchen for expanded foodservice offers, more
coffee selections, softer lighting, patio seating and diesel fuel.”

"We
don't have everything made-to order yet, but that's the direction the market is
going," Jim Brown, president of 7-Eleven Stores, told the news source.

The
article continued “Three additional new-format stores are currently under
construction in the Oklahoma City area, with plans for as many as 15 in the
near future. The Oklahoman adds that some of the new stores will replace
existing locations and others will be an expansion for the 7-Eleven Stores brand,
which has about 110 stores in central Oklahoma. “…

Brown
said that the new format is the product of a few years of planning and
extensive market research. "It has been a process of finding out about
what our customers like about us and building on that," he said. "The
opening of the first store is only the beginning, not the end.”

Here
in 2015 it is hard to believe but true these 7-Eleven Stores are one of the
Oklahoma’s largest independent convenience and fuel retailers and employs more
than 1,200 people. 7-Eleven Stores is a completely separate company from
Dallas-based 7-Eleven Inc. While both companies share the name and trademark of
7-Eleven, only 7-Eleven Stores in Oklahoma continues to be family-owned.

So, when we
ask is 7-Eleven Trading the Roller Grill for Grocerant Niche Fresh Food the
answer is not yet but we hope that 7-Eleven is watching this test with the
utmost care.

Interested
in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your
retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient
meal participation, differentiation and individualization? Email
us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.Have you had Grocerant Scorecard conducted
for you operation?

Thursday, July 30, 2015

What once was media hype and considered
another attention grabbing story by Amazon turns out to be true. Amazon
says it is going prime time with Dash. Dash is the small
plastic button, which is designed to be stuck or hung anywhere in
your home, allows you to instantly reorder products, like toilet paper or
diapers.

Yesterday,
TechHive noticed that the button
is now out of beta and is available to any Prime customer
willing to pay $4.99. As of today, there are 18-branded buttons available
from Glad bags, Huggies diapers, Gatorade and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. All
of them are being described as “limited edition” and available while supplies
last. If you are an Amazon Prime member reading my blog this service is for
you. If, for no other reason than to see where your best customers are going
and why.

Wow
attention grabbing YES, but why would any Amazon Prime member ever go back to
the dark ages and get into a car during a rain or snow storm and rush to get
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese for the kids again? Need diapers and the kids are napping? Then
Dash is for you!

This
is the kind of customer focused innovation will continue the market share
capitulation that the legacy grocery sector has experienced since 1998. Amazon
has been a retail industry disruptive force and Dash maybe the force that will
disrupt the aging grocery sector according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant
Guru™.

Amazon
claims the button is simple to set up when using your smartphone app to
connect it to your home Wi-Fi network and to pick what product you want to
order. Once connected, a single press automatically places orders for your
favorite items. Orders can be canceled if you change your mind, and
it prevents accidents by responding only to your first press, unless
you specify otherwise.

We
did say fresh and fast well Amazon is constantly trying to make purchases as easy
as point and click and sit back and wait, so the Dash button isn’t that random
it is fast and a fresh ideation that is customer focused.

What
else? Well Amazon has introduced the Amazon Dash Stick, a six-inch stick that
allows Amazon Fresh customers to add items to an online grocery list
using a built-in barcode scanner or microphone and launched the Dash
Replenishment Service, which allows connected devices around the house
that can detect when supply is running low with Amazon’s ordering platform.
Don’t you just love it!Customer focused
once again.

This
is the kind of innovation that has heads turning at Safeway, Publix, Walmart,
and Kroger. Why because innovation to them appears to be a new slotting fee for
a new product.Slotting fees are not
customer focused. Not new. Have no customer relevance other than creating
higher prices for the consumer.

OK,
Walmart are you keeping up? Not a chance according to Foodservice Solutions®
Grocerant Guru™. Legacy grocery stores think category management (an executive
crutch of a bygone era) continues to hold relevance.They are wrong.Category management is the opposite of
consumer transparency, is it any wonder consumer are in a hurry to move on?

Innovation
that breaks the mold, continued innovation that complements the consumer’s with
consumer facing transparency works.Success
Does Leave Clues: Legacy grocery stores I ask is your store fresher,
faster, and more transparent this year than last year?If so, is that enough? Maybe not? Look for
Amazon to garner Attention and Customers. We congratulate Amazon for moving the
retail sector forward.

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us is the global leader
in the Grocerant niche filled with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared
food.Is your company operating like it
is 1999? Are slotting fees more
important too your bottom line than customers or transparency? If so then you
are working for a company of yesterday, today and you may not have a seat at
the consumers table tomorrow?
Contact our Grocerant Guru™ at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us for ideations for
tomorrow’s success.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Some
companies lead and some companies follow.In today’s world one company stands out year after year that company is
Starbucks.Howard Schultz is the
Chairman and CEO of Starbucks.Schultz
and his team and understand the complexities of Omni-channel retail and the
evolving foodservice consumer better than anyone in the world according to our
own Grocerant Guru™ who stated “Howard Schultz is the best food merchant in the
world today.”

How
good is Schultz?Well Starbucks first
began accepting and testing mobile payments via its mobile app in 2009. Today one
in every five Starbucks Corp. sales is now handled via mobile payment, double
what the retailer achieved just two years ago.

In fact Starbucks now handles nearly 9
million mobile transactions per week, by far the most of any U.S. retailer.
Picking up momentum mobile Starbucks reached mobile a payment milestone for foodservice transactions at its use of the app
double in two years. Are your customers
evolving without you? Are you still running your business like you did in 1969
when it comes to payments? Why?

Success does leave clues and Howard Schultz said "Our
mobile commerce platform is literally stronger than ever," yet that is not
good enough for Schultz.While Starbucks’
biggest source of mobile payment growth comes from its loyalty rewards system
tied to its mobile app. The company is now driving more customers to join its
rewards program by inking new relationships with new companies the ilk of music
service Spotify and travel provider Lyft.

For
those of you how have not evolved here is the say news for you those 9 million
users per week According to “Payments
Source, Starbucks’ Mobile
Order and Pay capability, which is still in trial mode but has expanded rapidly
to 4,000 company-owned stores, is a major source of mobile payment growth. The
retailer expects to take this service nationwide by the holiday season.”Yes, 9 million mobile payments and they offer
the service in less than one third of their stores.

Success
does leave clues and Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™ says “follow
Starbucks as “Howard Schultz is the best food merchant in the world today.”

Are you
trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?Interested in learning how Foodservice
Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while
creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation
and individualization? Email us
at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information